Reply to: London is a world leader

[Mordac]

You don't drive into London. You use public transport.

What, and mix with the riff-raff?
If you're visiting, use a taxi. Suitcases don't work with escalators.
If you're transporting stuff around, you use a taxi if the client is paying. If you can't get a client to pay, you drive, because it's a one-off charge of £15 and you get London to yourself all day. So you make the most of it.

[SueEllen]

Why most Londoners, especially long-suffering car owners, want to carry on living there now I can't begin to imagine!

It's not even as if most office wallies need to commute to work now, when most can work from home and so could just as well live in the Outer Hebrides.

Oh I forgot, think of all the opera and art galleries!

You don't drive into London. You use public transport.

You walk for short journeys. It's actually quicker than taking public transport.

You cycle for slightly longer ones if you can find a safe space to leave your bike e.g. somewhere inside OR hire a Santander bike.

That's unless you have a scooter/moped/e-scooter.

You drive to do large amounts of shopping, to obtain/get rid of bulky goods or to do things outside London.

BTW - https://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...n-b970956.html

E-scooters are banned from ALL public transport in London and you get a £1,000 fine if caught taking one on it.

[xoggoth]

I drove to London a couple of months ago, and later received a letter warning me that I had been in a Low Emission zone, with the implication I had done something wrong.

Invited to an xmas do with relative in London. She is in LEZ. Checked out my little diesel van online and is ok, Kept a copy. Trusting government, no way!

[vetran]

Why most Londoners, especially long-suffering car owners, want to carry on living there now I can't begin to imagine!

It's not even as if most office wallies need to commute to work now, when most can work from home and so could just as well live in the Outer Hebrides.

Oh I forgot, think of all the opera and art galleries!

I take the train for the theatre/museums, driving into London daily 30 years ago was hard enough but now its impossible.

[OwlHoot]

There have been loads of thieves playing around with coin based parking meters so the boroughs have phrased them out.

Then the scammers started screwing around with the card ones so some boroughs have phrased them out, while others warn you by hints to only wave your card over when paying and not to put it in the machine unless you want your bank account emptied.

Oh and those apps are annoying as you need to work out which borough you are parking in, then download the right app and register an account before you start your journey.

In regards to two wheels:
- if you have an expensive bike you risk being knocked off it while riding and it's stolen with threats of violence - if you have a cheaper bike you risk it being stolen when you lock it up
- if you have a cheap crap of a bike you have to hope no drunk idiot goes pass and decides to destroy it when it is locked up

Why most Londoners, especially long-suffering car owners, want to carry on living there now I can't begin to imagine!

It's not even as if most office wallies need to commute to work now, when most can work from home and so could just as well live in the Outer Hebrides.

Oh I forgot, think of all the opera and art galleries!

[ladymuck]

ULEZ is 24/7/365. It doesn't help that our borough tip is just (and I mean yards) inside the South Circular. It's not been that widely publicised but when everyone with a 10 year old diesel tries to go there and gets a £100 fine for the privilege we'll see a mahoosive increase in fly-tipping. And if you live in Notting Hill and want a basement gym and cinema, or a loft conversion to stick granny in, it's going to take twice as long, as your builder will be spending 4 hours a day in traffic, and you'll be paying his £12.50 daily pollution charge, soon to be £50 as TfL runs out of money (again).
It is a war on cars (and vehicles in general) and no I don't think cyclists or cycle lanes are the real problem. It's one of the few remaining revenue raising tricks Sadiq Khan't has left and he's going to milk it.

I believe that RBKC sort of banned basement developments in 2014

https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/pressrelease...e.aspx?id=6558

[SueEllen]

no parking or (app) paid parking almost everywhere. My Google maps camera alarm was going off every few seconds and I think the chances of me not getting some infraction notification through the door in the next couple of weeks are slim. You'd have to be mad to drive there now (this is clearly a war on cars - maybe not a bad thing), but it wasn't cyclists that were the problem.

There have been loads of thieves playing around with coin based parking meters so the boroughs have phrased them out.

Then the scammers started screwing around with the card ones so some boroughs have phrased them out, while others warn you by hints to only wave your card over when paying and not to put it in the machine unless you want your bank account emptied.

Oh and those apps are annoying as you need to work out which borough you are parking in, then download the right app and register an account before you start your journey.

In regards to two wheels:
- if you have an expensive bike you risk being knocked off it while riding and it's stolen with threats of violence - if you have a cheaper bike you risk it being stolen when you lock it up
- if you have a cheap crap of a bike you have to hope no drunk idiot goes pass and decides to destroy it when it is locked up

[Mordac]

I drove through a couple of weeks ago for the first time in years (I'm originally from there). The amount of traffic regulations now is bordering on the surreal - bus lanes operating at different times, starting and stopping all over the place, 20mph zones, ULEZ at different times, neighbourhoods near my Dad's with total traffic bans (including residents) for various hours of the day, no parking or (app) paid parking almost everywhere. My Google maps camera alarm was going off every few seconds and I think the chances of me not getting some infraction notification through the door in the next couple of weeks are slim. You'd have to be mad to drive there now (this is clearly a war on cars - maybe not a bad thing), but it wasn't cyclists that were the problem.

ULEZ is 24/7/365. It doesn't help that our borough tip is just (and I mean yards) inside the South Circular. It's not been that widely publicised but when everyone with a 10 year old diesel tries to go there and gets a £100 fine for the privilege we'll see a mahoosive increase in fly-tipping. And if you live in Notting Hill and want a basement gym and cinema, or a loft conversion to stick granny in, it's going to take twice as long, as your builder will be spending 4 hours a day in traffic, and you'll be paying his £12.50 daily pollution charge, soon to be £50 as TfL runs out of money (again).
It is a war on cars (and vehicles in general) and no I don't think cyclists or cycle lanes are the real problem. It's one of the few remaining revenue raising tricks Sadiq Khan't has left and he's going to milk it.

[WTFH]

You have pay a small ransom if you drive through the ULEZ in a non-compliant vehicle.

not if you’re going to a party that didn’t happen, then you won’t be investigated for lack of evidence.

[ladymuck]

You have pay a small ransom if you drive through the ULEZ in a non-compliant vehicle.

[OwlHoot]

I drove through a couple of weeks ago for the first time in years (I'm originally from there). The amount of traffic regulations now is bordering on the surreal - bus lanes operating at different times, starting and stopping all over the place, 20mph zones, ULEZ at different times, neighbourhoods near my Dad's with total traffic bans (including residents) for various hours of the day, no parking or (app) paid parking almost everywhere. My Google maps camera alarm was going off every few seconds and I think the chances of me not getting some infraction notification through the door in the next couple of weeks are slim. You'd have to be mad to drive there now (this is clearly a war on cars - maybe not a bad thing), but it wasn't cyclists that were the problem.

Absolutely! That was also my impression, having left London on 2014.

I never even went near the congestion zone, but was pottering around the outskirts, in Putney and Wimbledon. But it seems this low emission zone now applies everywhere inside the Outer Circular.

[mattster]

I drove to London a couple of months ago, and later received a letter warning me that I had been in a Low Emission zone, with the implication I had done something wrong.

I've seen signs for these, but what on Earth are they? Obviously they're Low Emission zones, as their name suggests, but I mean when is one supposed to DO about them? Turn the engine off and get out and push the car?!

I drove through a couple of weeks ago for the first time in years (I'm originally from there). The amount of traffic regulations now is bordering on the surreal - bus lanes operating at different times, starting and stopping all over the place, 20mph zones, ULEZ at different times, neighbourhoods near my Dad's with total traffic bans (including residents) for various hours of the day, no parking or (app) paid parking almost everywhere. My Google maps camera alarm was going off every few seconds and I think the chances of me not getting some infraction notification through the door in the next couple of weeks are slim. You'd have to be mad to drive there now (this is clearly a war on cars - maybe not a bad thing), but it wasn't cyclists that were the problem.

[SueEllen]

I drove to London a couple of months ago, and later received a letter warning me that I had been in a Low Emission zone, with the implication I had done something wrong.

I've seen signs for these, but what on Earth are they? Obviously they're Low Emission zones, as their name suggests, but I mean when is one supposed to DO about them? Turn the engine off and get out and push the car?!

It was a pre-emptive warning if you do it now you get a nice big fine.

[OwlHoot]

I drove to London a couple of months ago, and later received a letter warning me that I had been in a Low Emission zone, with the implication I had done something wrong.

I've seen signs for these, but what on Earth are they? Obviously they're Low Emission zones, as their name suggests, but I mean when is one supposed to DO about them? Turn the engine off and get out and push the car?!

[SueEllen]

And I suspect the 20 mph speed limits on lots of main roads aren't helping either.

Makes no difference.

Traffic lights are actually the main cause of lots of congestion. You can easily see that when they are off completely or after they redesign a road and put them in.